Instagram and Waze arrive in Windows Phone Store

Popular social photo app Instagram and community-led traffic and navigation app Waze are now available for Windows Phone 8 users. However, some are not happy with the long-awaited Instagram’s missing features.

Microsoft claims the Windows Phone Store is growing by 500 apps per day, with Instagram and Waze joining other recent additions from Vine and Angry Birds Star Wars II.

Waze crowdsources real-time road conditions and traffic information and now Windows Phone users will be able to join this driving community and report accidents, hazards and problems on their routes, share fuel prices, and meet and co-ordinate with friends on the road.

While Waze is a welcome addition to the Windows Phone family, Instagram will have been a longed-for application. The photo-sharing app has more than 150m users worldwide and the Windows Phone 8 release brings it to some of the best smartphone cameras on the market from Nokia’s Lumia family.

Not all users are happy with the beta release, though as the Instagram app on Windows Phone doesn’t allow users to snap photos in-app. Instead, it defaults to the photo album for users to select from photos already taken and, if they select the live camera option, this reverts to the phone’s default camera app.

Other features lacking from this version of Instagram include the ability to record and upload video and the ability to tag users in photographs. Updates will likely follow to add these features as the app comes out of beta.

Apart from that, Instagram for Windows Phone 8 offers all the standard features users expect, including the full set of filters, linear and radial blur effects, unlimited uploads and the ability to like and comment on other users’ photos and videos. There are also benefits that come with the Microsoft mobile OS, such as a Live Tile pushing updates to the Start screen, support for fast resume and lock screen notifications.